The present invention relates to an apparatus for cutting a food product, more particularly, such an apparatus utilizing a rotatable cutting wheel having a plurality of generally radial slicing knives which define a cutting plane.
Known devices for slicing a food product typically comprise a rotatable slicing wheel having a plurality of knives extending between a hub and a rim so as to define a cutting plane and a conveying device for conveying the food product through the cutting plane. The speed of the feed device and the rotating speed of the cutting wheel are synchronized such that the food product is sliced into substantially uniform thickness slices. While generally successful, these known slicing machines have been heretofore limited to cutting the food product into slices and have been somewhat limited in the overall size of the food product which may be accommodated. The known food slicing devices also utilize a single motor to drive both the food product feed conveyor and the rotating cutting wheel. While the use of a single motor promotes accurate synchronization of the feed means and the cutting wheel speed, it results in a complicated drive arrangement requiring numerous lubrication points and increased maintenance.
The known slicing machines have been found inadequate for slicing food products such as Iceberg and Romaine lettuce. It has been necessary to precut the lettuce heads into halves or quarters before feeding them into the known slicing machines which are capable of making only a single dimension slicing cut. Thus, the known slicing machines have been utilized only to make shredded lettuce. The lettuce food products may be diced on a known dicing type of dicing apparatus, however, the size of the food product is, again, limited and the known devices are capable of producing only approximately 4,000 lbs. of food product per hour of operation. In order to properly dice a food product, such as lettuce, it is necessary for the apparatus to provide more than a one dimensional cut. This requirement has heretofore rendered the known slicing devices to be inappropriate for dicing food products.
An apparatus for cutting a food product is disclosed which utilizes a cutting wheel having a plurality of knives extending between a hub and a rim in conjunction with other cutting knives to produce a multidimensional cut of the food product. The use of the additional cutting knives enables the apparatus to dice a thin layered or leafy food product (cut it into small pieces) as opposed to merely slicing the food product in a single dimensional cut. The additional cutting knives may include one or more julienne knives attached to each of the knives of the cutting wheel so as to extend approximately at right angles to the cutting plane defined by the cutting wheel knives. Also, a circular knife may be located upstream of the cutting plane defined by the cutting wheel such that the rotary knife longitudinally cuts the food product before it passes through the cutting plane. The combination of the cutting knives enables this apparatus to dice a food product, such as lettuce, causing minimal bruising to the food product, thereby extending its shelf life.
The apparatus according to the invention also utilizes separate drive motors for the feed conveyor and for the cutting wheel. The use of separate drive motors eliminates the complicated drive mechanism of the known devices and enables the size of the apparatus to be increased so as to accommodate larger sized food products. The device of the present invention is capable of dicing approximately 15,000 lbs./hour of Iceberg lettuce, a significantly greater capacity than the known dicing machines.
In order to prevent deflection or deformation of the larger cutting wheel, a rim stabilizer engages the cutting wheel rim to prevent any deflection of the rim which, may cause deflection of the cutting knives, as the cutting wheel rotates. The rim stabilizer has one or more rotatable rollers which engage a groove defined in the nm of the cutting wheel so as to prevent any deflection in directions on either side of the cutting plane. The rim stabilizer may be moved out of engagement with the rim in order to facilitate removal or installation of the cutting wheel on the apparatus. Increased size of the apparatus, including the increased diameter cutting wheel, enables the apparatus to accept a food product of approximately 6xc2xd inches or more in diameter as contrast to the maximum diameter food product of 2xc2xe inches for the know slicing devices.